Dell Venue 7 Review

We had been pretty impressed with the Dell Venue 7 and Venue eight which we reviewed virtually precisely a 12 months in the past. Dell has solely simply determined to get critical in regards to the Android pill world, and regardless of some flaws, the primary two Venue fashions had been fairly good for his or her asking costs. Within the time since then, Dell has launched an up to date mannequin in India. These had been first proven off at Computex 2014, and are at the moment obtainable in our market.

The massive new factor this time is the inclusion of voice calling. Lots of people really feel that if you are going to have a SIM card for mobile knowledge, you would possibly as nicely have the ability to make and obtain voice calls. However, there’s the staggering impracticality of holding a 7-inch pill as much as your face or plugging in a headset each single time the telephone rings. Dell has left the selection as much as the client, and so variations of the 2014 Venue 7 (and Venue eight) with and with out voice and knowledge can be found. We have now the voice-enabled 2014 Dell Venue 7 in for evaluate at the moment.

Dell Venue 7 Appear and feel

It is a fairly slick-looking pill. Its black plastic and rubber end is certainly much less premium than that of Apple’s iPad mini lineup, however a minimum of you do not require a protecting case. The very first thing you may discover is the daring concentric circle sample on the again. It appears good and helps you grip the physique even when utilizing it with one hand – the one minor disadvantage is that particles of mud and lint are likely to get trapped within the grooves.

With the display screen off, the entrance face is completely clean. The one factor serving to you orient the pill is a outstanding cutout for the front-facing digital camera proper within the centre above the display screen. It is value noting that there is no such thing as a earpiece on the entrance for making voice calls with, and no headset within the field both.

Android navigation buttons are all on-screen. The ability button and headset socket are on prime, with the Micro-USB port and quantity buttons on the higher left. A reasonably outstanding speaker grille is on the underside. The Micro-SIM and microSD card slots are hidden underneath a neat rubber flap on the proper edge.

The first digital camera, centered close to the highest of the rear panel, sits on a raised bump. Which means that the pill rocks a bit if you happen to attempt utilizing it when it is mendacity on a desk. Dell for some motive selected to print all its regulatory data on a black sticker on prime of the grooved rear floor, which is the one factor that mars the Venue 7’s appears.

The system cannot be opened, however we did discover a little bit of flex in a single nook the place the rear shell curves round to fulfill the entrance face. The entrance face additionally picks up fingerprints and smudges like loopy.

Dell Venue 7 Specs and software program

Dell has continued utilizing Intel’s Atom CPUs in its tablets, and the brand new Venue 7 is powered by an Atom Z3460, which is a dual-core, 64-bit processor working at speeds between 1.06GHz and 1.60GHz.

The display screen nonetheless has a decision of 800×1280, although a part of it’s going to virtually all the time be occupied by a band for the tender navigation buttons. This is not the sharpest display screen round, however it’s ok for studying books, browsing the Net, taking part in video games and watching movies on. The first digital camera has a 5-megapixel sensor and no flash, whereas the one in entrance solely has a 1-megapixel sensor.

There’s 1GB of RAM and 16GB of inner space for storing. MicroSD playing cards of as much as 64GB are supported. The Dell Venue 7 (2014) comes with Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth four.zero. 4G LTE is just not supported on the bands utilized in India, so that you’re restricted to 3G speeds. The battery is rated at four,550mAh.

Dell ships the Venue 7 (2014) with nearly-stock Android four.four. It ought to really feel acquainted to anybody who has used an Android telephone or pill earlier than, and in reality in some locations, such because the black app drawer and digital camera app, it feels fairly dated. There are a number of customisations, most notably WavesAudio optimisation and its accompanying app. You’ll be able to toggle between film, music, voice and recreation modes utilizing a widget within the notifications shade.

There’s additionally a card scanner and contacts syncing app calld CamCard, a photograph enhancing app referred to as Skitch, Dropbox, Polaris Workplace, Pocketcloud, and Dell Forged, which mirrors your pill’s display screen to an exterior one if you happen to occur to have a suitable adapter.

Dell Venue 7 Efficiency

The Dell Venue 7 (2014) carried out fairly nicely in all our benchmarks and we observed an enormous leap in efficiency between final 12 months’s mannequin and this one. The Quadrant rating jumped from 7,698 to 10,338 and the AnTuTu rating from 19,094 to 30,429 (although these scores aren’t totally comparable as AnTuTu has been up to date since then). The body fee in GFXBench improved from 13fps to a really strong 32fps, and 3DMark’s Ice Storm Excessive rose from three,643 to eight,935. SunSpider’s rating improved barely from 986ms to 958.1ms. Evidently Intel’s newest era of Atom processors reveals a lot higher enchancment within the graphics subsystem than the CPU.

The display screen was a lot improved, in comparison with final 12 months’s mannequin. Studying lengthy paperwork didn’t pose any downside, and hues had been typically vibrant besides when the system was used underneath direct daylight. The Venue 7 (2014) performed our heaviest pattern video clips with none bother. The speaker is loud and principally clear. Battery life was additionally spectacular, with the system lasting 7 hours, 9 minutes in our video loop take a look at.

We would not normally choose up a pill when we have to take pictures, however the Dell Venue 7 (2014) really shocked us with first rate picture high quality. Pictures had been much more detailed than these taken with final 12 months’s mannequin. Even so, you are extra prone to get a greater image with a low-end smartphone digital camera, particularly in low gentle.

Dell Venue 7 Verdict

Though Dell fortunately sells the Venue 7 (2014) as a voice-enabled pill, it actually appears as if the corporate has handled calling as an afterthought. There are many different 7-inch gadgets, similar to Asus’ FonePad (Assessment | Images) and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab collection that are extra fitted to voice calling. At his value degree even the first-generation Wi-Fi-only iPad mini is an alternate value contemplating regardless of its age.

LTE knowledge ought to have been this product’s greatest promoting level, however that is not potential in India. Nonetheless, efficiency is fairly good, particularly for informal video games and Net browsing, and construct high quality far outshines that of comparable merchandise from smaller manufacturers. As such, Rs. 14,999 looks as if somewhat an excessive amount of for this system. When you can reside with out mobile knowledge, the Wi-Fi-only model presents higher worth at Rs. 11,999.